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Learn 11 Ways To Protect Your Website's Email Address
Did you know that there are software programs that view web sites and steal email addresses? They're called "harvesters" because they're crawling or gathering your email address from your site. Like harvester trucks do to collect some crops on a farm. Yes, there are software programs sold on the Internet and those "bad apples" add to our spam problems. What they do is go through thousands of web sites looking for email addresses. This may be one of the reasons your web site email address is receiving more unwanted email than messages from current or future clients. Way back in 1999, when I started teaching web design and marketing classes, I suggested that students place their email address on each page - it makes your site a bit more "trustable." Unfortunately, now, this process leaves your site wide open to mass harvesting. Two newer option that have been showing up quite a bit lately are unclickable addresses or graphic addresses. Unclickable addresses force those who want to get in touch with you to cut your email address from a web site (if they know how to do that), then open their email program and then past it into the TO box. OR in some cases they must fiddle with what they've cut and remove spaces or directions from the email address. And some sites have their email address posted in a graphic. Which means you see it, but in order to use it you must write it down, then open your email program, and type it into the TO box. I highly suggest that you don't use either of those two ways... unless you want annoy people, chase them away from your web site and be broke. Fortunately, there are many ways to fight unwanted email and new ways area being created all the time. What can you do?
What processes are available?1. Have One PlacePlace a link to your address on a single contact us information page. This is especially helpful if you have more than one web site. For example, if you go to any of my 9 web sites, and click on Contact Maria, it will take you to one page on my Elevating Your Business web site. 2. Create A Unique Email AddressBy unique email address, I mean, that you've created an email address to use ONLY on your web site. First, you'll know if people are emailing you from that marketing venue and second, if sometime in the future, it's necessary for you to change your web site email address, people using the old address and who get an error message, will have your web site "in" the old address and can find you. 3. Code Using EncryptionWhat's encryption about? It's an email address that is encoded within a bunch of very strange HTML code. So your email address is imbedded in the code. This makes it more difficult for those harvesters to crawl all over your site looking for addresses. Encrypting your email address makes the gathering process a little more difficult while it provides legitimate email get through to you. If you're already using an encryption program and it's stopped working, see if the provider updated the code you were using (many provide regular updates) or change to another service. Sample of encryption resources:
A while ago, Willie Crawford's "almost" weekly Internet call and this topic was discussed. Someone recommended this program by a highly regarded programmer. SpambotBuster. I've used it for two weeks with a new email address and so far, so good! Encryption programs - A VERY good thing to use on your web site to reduce unwanted email. 4. Don't use certain email addressesIf you have a web site, you probably have an admin, abuse, webmaster and info email address. NOT! Well, I do suggest having an email address called abuse, just in case someone is having difficulty leaving your email address or something. But NOT the others! If so, you're setting yourself up for unwanted email. Those who send unwanted email may see your site, like it, and then automatically try emailing admin@YOUR_Web_Site.com, webmaster@YOUR-Web_Site.com, etc. 5. Set up a black holeThis is something you do from the control panel of a hosting company. Usually if you look up default email in the help section, you can set this process up. :blackhole: is used to automatically delete all incoming but unrouted email. :fail: may also be used to bounce the email messages back to where they came from, however, I recommend blackhole. Don't give the spammers knowledge that your site exists but NOT that particular email address! 6. Create A FormWhen creating a contact form on your web site, it's important that you keep the user in mind. After all, you're not trying to stop all email, just the unwanted email. Students who attend my web class always include "form asks for too much information" as a turn off on web sites. That said, some forms program include your email address in the code and is not what you want. You want the form to hide your email address from the harvesters, not put it in your form for them to gather. 7. Use a help systemAnother alternative is a ticket generating help system where the person wanting your attention fills out form on your site that creates a ticket. Now this is a very good idea, and again, because this is a variation of the #6, make sure that your email address is not included in the code. For the web site owner, this format has additional benefits. We can have all the email coming to a unique email address and keep track of it and the messages sent back/forth easily. Now when you get a few thousand emails a day, a ticketing system is a very good thing! However, some of these programs force the user to use a password/id before they email you. This is another way to chase potential clients away. Find a system that makes it easy on your end users, but hard on the harvesters. Below is a listing of possible programs to review. (Note: I have not reviewed the code for the help programs below, nor do I know if they force people to use passwords. I will review them in a future article.) 8. Create A Double Opt In ListSome individuals subscribe to newsletters and then use the email addresses to send you unsolicited email. Double opt-in helps you here just a little bit, but it won't completely stop someone from sending you an email using a forged email address. 9. Construct A Shopping CartOne of the best things I did regarding harvesting was to put up a shopping cart. People-- well harvesters --- just love the code that PAYPAL gives you to put on your site with your email address in it! I know. I changed my PAYPAL email address a year ago and then updated my site with the new address. Within 24 hours someone had harvested it! PayPal has or had an option of using an encrypted email system, however, it wasn't readable by all browsers. Which meant that some people couldn't buy the products using the code on my web site. Not a very good thing. Now that I have a shopping cart up with paypal as a payment option, I've change my address and so far, no extra mail has come into that account, mainly because a shopping cart does not show the paypal code. 10. Pay for a systemYa, there are anti-spam program that come with your ISP, some come with your hosting package, and some you can purchase. I did a google search and they list Anti-spam programs. 11. EducateA local business owner found my website on a Chamber of Commerce website. I had been very specific that site didn't list my email address and contained only my website URL. (Yes, when your address is listed on other sites, you may end up having your email harvested by someone through their site!) So, the local business visited my web site (and many other web sites I might add) and sent me an unsolicited email trying to sell me something. I emailed them back telling them that they had s*pam*ed me. She insisted that she wasn't sending me S*A*PM and gave me the excuse that if I didn't want to be found, I shouldn't list my information on any web sites. CAN YOU BELIEVE HER ATTITUDE! I educated her and told her that If I got one more unwanted email from her company, that I would report her company to her ISP. Yeah, I received a nasty letter back from her. And yes, I have, on a very limited basis, reported people. Sometimes that's the only way to stop them. There are a few sites that will educate you on unwanted email. Report fraudulent email to the FTC, How to Report Unsolicited Email Special thanks to all the guys and gals on Willie Crawford's weekly and those on yahoogroup's HTML-on-the-WEB list for helping me with resources for this article. ©2007 Maria Marsala, former Wall Street Fortune 200 executive, business strategist, author and speaker. As founder of Elevating Your Business, Maria helps business owners and independent service professionals work smarter and earn more. 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by Maria Marsala
